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Posted by on November 22, 2006, 9:50 pm
Sorry I should have been more specific.
Yes, by plugging in I mean powering up. The cable modem is connected
via ethernet, not USB.
As for how far the computer getson start up, it's usually starting
Windows when it shuts off. If you think of the screen that comes up
showing "Windows XP" with the little status bar underneath that
repeatedly goes from left to right until the desktop appears it pretty
consistently completes the "left to right" sequence 7 times and then
shuts down (my father in law counted them). I tried starting in safe
mode but got the same result.
By "wonky" I mean the picture on the monitor gets wavy and distorted
(colors out of phase). It looks like interference, you know like in
the old days when you're TV wasn't tuned in properly. I too thought it
was electrical, and I'm still open to that. It just seems to weird to
start happening all of a sudden,when as far as I know, nothing's
changed in the way the equipments is set up. I do wonder about the
house heat causing something, I may have to grill pop-in-law to see if
anything's changed along those lines.
Also that fact that it stops at the same point of start up almost every
time makes me think it's happening when Windows loads a driver or
allocates resources for the modem. On the other hand every once in a
while you get through to the desk top and the icons load up, everything
looks good and then bam! it turns off. So I'm getting some conflicting
results. I tried booting off the XP disk, thinking that the monitor
driver file was corrupted somehow, but again it would shut down while
starting Windows.
I know enough to be dangerous, plus a little more as I sell software
for a living, but I'm pretty stumped. I will bring my modem over
tomorrow and see what happens. I may also lug a monitor over there
just to check everything-the monitor is a Dell made in 99. I'm also
bringing my laptop,so I can get info from the net (you guys) while I'm
fighting it. The modem does work fine on a laptop, so it's not
completely screwed. I'm guessing that possibly somehow the anti-virus
program or IE upgrade changed the resource allocation and now the modem
and monitor are conflicting. I have no idea why those programs would
do that, but I do know Microsoft seems to like to mess with as much of
the system as they can when they upgrade their stuff (especially IE).
It may have something to do with increased security. I haven't seen
anything like this anywhere though.
Also I had them do a system restore to before the upgrades but that
didn't help. I'll likely do that myself first thing tomorrow, pushing
it back until last week (there's nothing important on their computer
from that time period). I'll probably spend most of my turkey day in
the computer room, but hey, it gets me away from watching the Lions
game.
I appreciate any and all help you can give me.
John
Warren wrote:
> rred_@yahoo.com wrote:
> > Unfortunately I am the tech resource for not only my mother's computer
> > but my in-laws 'puter as well.
> > So I got called into my in-laws the other day and the weirdest thing is
> > happening. They called me because their computer wouldn't boot up, or
> > sometimes it would and then it would shut down after a few minutes.
> >
> > After fighting with the thing just to get it started and jumping
> > through various hoops I've discovered that the computer works fine as
> > long as the cable modem isn't plugged in. The second I plug in the
> > modem the monitor goes all wonky. So what the Hell would cause this?
> > They've been using this set up for quite a while with no problems.
> > Seems like most things started to go haywire when Ma in-law upgraded to
> > IE 7 (gee it couldn't be a Microsoft software causing problems could
> > it?) and also when she upgraded her AVG anit-virus program (or gee
> > could it be the freeware causing the problems?).
> > They did have both Norton and AV on the machine, but the problem
> > persisted even after I un-installed both of those.
> >
> > My guess is it's a conflict of some sort. But how do I find the
> > conflict without the modem being plugged in?
> >
> > Could this be some kind of electronic noise issue coming from the power
> > cord for the modem or something?
> >
> > What other things might cause this funky behavior?
> >
>
> I'm also confused about some of the things you're saying, and some
> clarification would be helpful. It does *seem* that you have an electrical
> problem, not a computer problem, but that could just be because of the
> ambiguity in what you're saying.
>
> If it's not an electrical problem, and when you say "plug the modem in"
> you're actually talking about connecting the Ethernet cable to the network
> interface card, then you may have a bad NIC. If you're using a USB
> connection from the modem to the computer, and things fail when you plug
> in the USB cable, then get a real NIC. USB *can* be used for networking,
> but it's nowhere near as efficient or reliable than using a real Ethernet
> NIC, and should only be used if a NIC cannot be used.
>
> Another possibility, but a long shot, could be bad memory chip, and the
> problem is in the area used by the NIC or USB. But again, this is assuming
> that you have a computer problem, and not an electrical problem.
>
> --
> Warren H.
>
> ==========
> Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
> employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
> Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
> coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
> response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
> to go outside now.
>
> Shop for networking gear:
> http://www.holzemville.com/mall/linksys
> http://www.holzemville.com/mall/netgear
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